


New Beginnings Don't Always Feel Like Great Beginnings

by PhoenixRising360



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:07:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27784984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixRising360/pseuds/PhoenixRising360
Summary: Jerry is hired as a consultant for the 5-0 team, but it wasn't what he expected.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	New Beginnings Don't Always Feel Like Great Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first foray into writing for Hawaii Five-O. It's been years since I've watched any episodes but this popped in my head this morning and demanded to be written. Apologies if I made any mistakes in continuity. Hope it's enjoyable.

Jerry sat in his office looking around the room. The faint smell of sanitizer lingered and he wondered if that smell would ever completely fade. The disappointment he felt at not being upstairs with the 5-0 team weighed on his shoulders. He thought he would be a member of the team, not hidden away in the basement, out of sight, out of mind.

Okay, not completely out of mind, he considered. He had been given a list of duties he was expected to completely daily, weekly and monthly and he reported to Steve McGarrett directly. Steve had even made Jerry apply for a security clearance, which he got and it allowed Steve to delegate some duties to him and free up their work load to focus on stuff that required higher security clearance.

Unfortunately, even that didn’t remove the sting of not having an office upstairs with the team. So far, they hadn’t needed him to do anything other than the list of duties he’d been assigned and he completed them with lackluster enthusiasm. It was routine work, not exactly busy-work, because Steve reviewed the information he was given each day, and this morning had even asked him to keep track of some chatter related to it, which is what he was now doing. Steve had warned him that 99% of the information he gathered would only be FYI type information and only 1% would be anything they actually pursued but Jerry was expected to follow up on anything that felt ‘off’ to him, and if he wasn’t sure if it was ‘off’, he was to bring it to Steve or Danno and they would decide if it was ‘off’ or not.

Jerry sighed. This was a boring task, nothing like what he expected to have to do with 5-0. He understood why it was delegated to him. Kono was doing this work before he was hired and he found out she was assigned tasks that were more complex and also required a higher security clearance. Kono told him he should be able to get higher clearance in time but he would need to prove himself first. Jerry understood that, of course, but having to go down to the basement after being in the brightly lit and warm office of the 5-0 team was a bitter pill to swallow.

He’d never forget how Steve had excitedly shown him his office that first day and how Jerry’s heart sank to the bottom of his gut at the drab and dreary former janitor’s-closet-turned-office. It was so unexpected and unwelcome. For a moment, he wondered if he actually wanted to do this after all. When he’d told Steve he’d expected to work upstairs with them, Steve had told him why he couldn’t work upstairs with them but now he couldn’t remember exactly what that was. That, more than anything, told him that whatever Steve had said was probably bullshit and had felt patronized and even slightly belittled. That feeling was slightly mitigated when Steve told him he could spruce up the room however he wanted to within reason, as long as it didn’t tax the electricity or appear completely unprofessional. He reminded himself that Steve wouldn’t have hired him if didn’t actually want him there and while he knew he could be annoying sometimes and that people sometimes found him hard to take, he had helped 5-0 on their cases and they seemed to appreciate that help.

Somewhat reluctantly, he decided he would do his best and prove to them that he didn’t deserve to be patronized and that he should be upstairs with them, after all. He’d had enough of people who thought him slow and dumb just because he hated razors on his face and was heavy. He was smart and good at problem solving. He’d proven it to these guys, now he had to prove that he could work with them without annoying them as he had in the past. 

Now, three days into his new job and he was starting to wonder why he was here. Other than the tasks Steve had given him, he’d done nothing worth mentioning other than fixing up his office. Maintenance had installed heat in the room so it wouldn’t be so cool and damp but otherwise had nothing to show it was an office other than a desk, chair and a couple of empty filing cabinets. With Steve’s approval, Jerry requested a second monitor and he hung that on the wall and found some outdoor images, like the ocean to play on it and switch out throughout the day to make it seem like a window to the outside world. It almost transformed the room and heartened by the window-like appearance, Jerry found some other photos and bought some frames to hang on the walls to further brighten it. Kono had already seen it and had been impressed at the transformation. She didn’t lie and say it was nicer than her office or the 5-0 squad room, but she thought it was nicer than the HPD squad room.

He felt forgotten down here. He knew that was ridiculous, but he thought this was going to be more exciting and more meaningful than it turned out to be. It was a waste of his skills. He debated on whether to tell Steve he changed his mind but after Steve had told him to keep track of that chatter, he was reluctant. They needed him for something, at least, even if it amounted to nothing in the end, it was freeing someone else to do work he couldn’t do right now, and maybe things would get better.

~*~

The following morning he no sooner than booted up his laptop when his phone rang. It was Danno. “Jerry, we need you upstairs right now. You’ll need to take notes.” He hung up.

Jerry blinked. Okay, this was it! He unplugged his laptop, grabbed his keys from his desk, locked the door and headed upstairs. The team was gathered around the center console and Jerry quietly joined them.

Steve didn’t waste any time. “The chatter from yesterday hinted at a possible terrorist attack on Honolulu, possibly on Pearl. We’re in a critical alert. We received information from Homeland of a few possible players.” Steve then tapped on the console and started explaining what was already known about the players. Jerry took furious notes and Steve slowed down a little so he could get all the information down. He then assigned everyone else tasks and finally, he turned to Jerry.

“Jerry, I need you to dig deep. I want you to find out what connections these guys have in the United States and Hawaii, in particular. I want known associates, locations, homes, whatever you can find out about these guys’ activities here in the USA. I’ve already contacted the CIA for more information. Find out everything you can. Meet back here in two hours. Go!”

Everyone scattered. Back in his office, Jerry got right to work, first transcribing his notes into something readable instead of a warped shorthand. Then, he started digging and noted everything that seemed relevant, found himself blocked by his lack of high security clearance, but didn’t come up completely empty-handed. His instincts and skills helped him around the security clearance without hacking, and he found info on potential associates who lived year-round in Hawaii.

The two hours seemed to go fast and as he returned to the squad room, he hoped what he found was good enough. As soon as he entered the room, Steve was just coming out of his office and Jerry was quietly relieved he wasn’t late. 

“Jerry, what’d you find out?” Steve called out.

He shared all the info he had and once he was done, they went around the room. Jerry took notes of the information they found out, typing furiously, even asked a few questions.

“Jerry, find out if those last two have any business connections. I don’t think it’s a coincidence they both have homes in such close proximity.”

Jerry froze for a second as he looked up, seeing Steve and the others waiting. He looked down at his laptop and his fingers fumbled as he typed, hitting the delete button furiously as he kept making typos. He started to sweat as his searches initially came up nothing. He read frantically. Meanwhile, Steve asked Chin to pull up local maps and Jerry was relieved for the distraction from him. He was able to calm down a little and his searches became more focused. Jerry glanced up at the maps occasionally while he was searching to stay in tune to the conversation, and finally, after what felt like hours but was in reality nine minutes, he found the information he was looking for.

“Got it!” he announced and named off the tourist trap store that was jointly owned between their suspected terrorists. “They get shipments on Tuesdays and Fridays, overseas suppliers. I’m trying to get locations and names on suppliers.”

“Good, stay on that. They may be getting illegal shipments with products. See if any of them have associations with known terrorists or even other criminals.” Steve gave orders to the rest and then he and Danno left to check out one of the locations they suspected.

Chin continued to work at the console and Jerry gathered his laptop and made his way back to the basement. Once he was sitting behind his desk again, he breathed out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t liked feeling like all eyes were on him. He wiped the sweat from his brow and took a second to regain his equilibrium. That had been…intense, more so than other times he’d stood there with them, but this time he was an active participant instead of a bystander and maybe-consultant. He plugged his laptop back in and resumed his digging, this time determined to find even more information in the hopes he wouldn’t be asked to find something else on the spot like that again.

He soon found that was only the beginning. Over the next few weeks, the team ran themselves ragged as chatter escalated and Jerry researched until his eyes felt gritty and dry. There were several other occasions where he was put on the spot in the squad room, looking for information needed immediately and he had trouble focusing with all eyes on him waiting. He knew his discomfort was obvious but no one said anything, just waited him out.

Late in the second week, Kono pulled him aside one moment while the team dispersed again. “Jerry, try to calm down, all right? You’re getting too worked up. We know you’re going to find information, we know it’s not always going to be instant. Just do the best you can, okay? Don’t worry about the timetable, that’s our job.”

“Yeah, okay. Thanks, Kono.”

She smiled at him. “You’re doing great, really!” Then, she turned and left to join Chin.

In the end, 5-0 teamed up with NCIS and Homeland Security to stop an attack on Pearl Harbor and it was Jerry who found the warehouse where they stored the bombs. Once the agencies jointly went in and stopped the terrorists and rounded up who they could, 5-0 got a thank you and a breather from the governor. Jerry was exhausted. Despite that, it didn’t stop him from rethinking his initial impressions of working with them day to day. It was a lot more complex than he realized though he’d known it wouldn’t be easy. He’d learned to think ahead, anticipate what information they might need next and what kind of information to focus on to help with immediate threats. By the time the terrorists had been stopped, Jerry had been put on the spot much less than his first week.

He smiled a little self-deprecatingly at himself. He should’ve realized he’d work better alone and that Steve knew what he was doing by putting him in the basement. All eyes on him made him feel like the weight of the world was on him, and given the work they did, that was close to the truth. He found the work satisfying, glad to know things and make a difference with that information rather than just guessing based on known facts or even false information. This was so much better in that respect. His initial disappointment that he wasn’t working upstairs with the team had instead become a relief. In his office, by himself, he worked hard, focused, calm and challenged himself to think in ways that would net him the most information. He couldn’t do that upstairs in the squad room.

He saw Steve’s enthusiasm in a new light. He wasn’t being patronized. Steve knew he would work better alone if he had his own space and even though it was just an old janitor’s closet, he’d found space for him to accommodate his talent and skill, which was a huge compliment now that he thought about it. In that sense, he started to understand why Steve McGarrett was commander. He knew people and he tried to accommodate what he knew would work for them while still challenging them and that’s exactly what he had done with Jerry. Maybe he would’ve annoyed them by being in the squad room, but it would be because he was letting them down, not just because of his personality. Steve may not have wanted to explain his motives, but for Jerry, it was better that he figured it out for himself.

Feeling more settled and content than he ever had in his life, he stretched out in bed, ready for a nap. No sooner than he pulled the sheet over himself did his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and smiled.

“Yeah, Steve?”

“Hey, Jerry, didn’t get a chance to talk to you yesterday. You got thrown in head first into a lot of chaos and you swam strong. We couldn’t have done all that without you! Great job!”

“Thanks, Steve.”

“Yeah, have a good long weekend. See you Monday.”

“You bet!” Jerry hung up with a smile. As he drifted off, his last conscious thought was that even if he didn’t have an office upstairs with the team didn’t mean he wasn’t part of it and right now, he liked it that way.


End file.
